Also, thank you to dragonfae for the honor of the Kreative Award. (The pic is somewhere. Drat, I’m gonna have to come back and edit later, or I’ll never get this blog done!) You can find this lovely lady here:

I posted the one award in an earlier blog, and I do appreciate every one I get, every reader who pops in and says hi! I roll my eyes a bit at the bloggers who turn up their noses, pooh-pooh awards or mock them. People, these are your READERS! The whole point of a blog is to have Readers see your Writing and enjoy it. To receive such lovely feedback in the form of a nice little Award is wonderful and a nice way for us/them to show their appreciation of your work.

Oh, they aren’t the general public? They aren’t the people buying your “serious” book, or , gee, it’s just a blog (or worse, gee, it’s just from another blogger). Excuse me? Why are you writing a blog if you don’t appreciate each and every person who checks it out?

The best affirmation for a writer is feedback in any form, positive and negative. It keeps us going when we’re staring at blank screen or struggling to put our thoughts into coherent sentences. Every blog I read and write helps me be a better Writer. Each one teaches me something.

So, yes, I’m Thrilled to receive awards! To me, they mean someone enjoyed my writing, that I can put words into a coherent form and capture someone’s interest. So, yes, Thank You!

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My good friend (and an awesome author!) Melissa Crandall posted an important blog Sunday. A Quarter Beneath My Tongue (name of her blog). Once I’ve gotten today organized, I’ll edit the links, but you all are smart, I think you can figure out how to get to these bloggers.

Anyway, our desktop crashed. We have no idea why. Hubby spent five hours coaxing the hard drive to find my manuscripts and all his more important work files. I tried not to freak. I do have a printed copy of the main manuscript and the final draft on the laptop. What I did not have were the most recent revisions on the flash drive or the laptop. Back up all files before walking away from your computer! Yep, I’m terrible at remembering to do that. Now, the flash drive is sitting right here and will be used religiously.

I explained to Melissa why I hadn’t read her blog yet – the desktop needed Windows re-installed, it’s all needing to be re-entered, and to enter WordPress on the desktop, I’ll have to enable cookies. I’m afraid to. We still don’t know what crashed that computer. Since we both use it and browse lots of links, it could have been anything, even WordPress! So, to protect hubby’s work, I won’t enable anything on it until he gets home.

Boot up the laptop… I read Melissa’s blog and perspective sat me firmly down. Two people she cares deeply about have major crisis in their lives, and I was whining about a computer. I’m sorry, Melissa, thank you for reminding me of what is truly important.

Valentine’s Day. Hmm, well, shove the commercial crap aside and use this day to Hug everyone, be aware of what they need, be helpful to those you love. Keep it in Perspective; Life is hard, so try to make it a little better for those around you.

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Lastly, a small rant before I go and try to get more rewriting done: I loved Whitney Houston’s Voice. Pure, Awesome, Gorgeous. A huge talent. I did not love who she was or her personal choices for her life. I have ZERO tolerance for drug addicts and despise seeing celebrities and sports stars treated to front page news, and receiving millions of dollars just for existing.

My celebrities are every soldier, law enforcement officer and firefighter out there just doing his/her job for mere pennies. They should be our front page news, not some drugged out singer who destroyed her talent. There, rant over.

Comments on: "Fumbling Along" (4)

Excellent. Can you put the last 2 paragraphs in BOLD?
(Loved Whitney Houston’s music, but she was a train wreck – and she was 43 with teen daughter – does not belong in the “artists who died too young” category along with WInehouse, Joplin, Morrison, James Dean…(and please…media following her casket? Leave her family alone)
We have real heroes – like the ones you listed at the end. thanks guys.
(And Happy Bloggentines Award to you)

Thanks for popping in, mouse! Well, I’m not doing much in blog world right now – between the desktop misbehaving & half a manuscript to edit and revise, I need to be cautious – the laptop is old and hates it when I try to edit or even write a blog now.

But, oh yeah, I agree with you – that funeral was insane – leave her family alone, yes. But what I thought was ridiculous was the all-day coverage on national news. Really? For a druggie singer? Ah, well, it’s over with now.